’REDUCING THE NUMBER OF BIRTHS PER WOMAN TO REDUCE POVERTY MADE MATHEMATICAL SENSE TO FUJIMORI. ANY METHOD OF BALANCING THE EQUATION WAS VALID’

Peru: the scandal of forced sterilisation

Peru’s government wants to extradite former President Alberto Fujimori from sanctuary in Japan in connection with assassinations in the 1990s. But his government’s eugenic policy, which encouraged the sterilisation of 300,000 women from poor Amerindian communities, has not been mentioned

HALLYCOCHA is an Amerindian community in Laguna Pampa in the Andean uplands, 50 kilometres from Cuzco, Peru. Here farmers till the land using ox-drawn ploughs. In one of the ramshackle houses lives Hilaria Supa Huamán, her hands deformed by arthritis; she has just come back from her chacra, the small plot where she grows corn, maize and potatoes.

In 1991 Hilaria was one of the founders of the women’s Peasant Federation of Anta, which is a largely rural province with about 80,000 inhabitants. Three years later she became its secretary-general and in that capacity took part in the 1995 IVth World Conference on Women in Beijing. That gave her the opportunity to speak to President Albert Fujimori. “He began talking to me about a family planning health care programme he wanted to launch. I said: ’Fine, provided husbands and wives take decisions jointly.’ ’Of course,’ he said.”

Some months later, under strong pressure from the village nurse and without any detailed information, Hilaria had tubal ligation surgery and found it hard to recover. “They insult you by saying: ’Do you want to breed like a pig? Your husband will be angry if you do nothing,’” she says. “Afterwards they assure you that you will soon be back on your feet. That’s not true. The scar outside heals, but internally healing is slow because our work is so physically demanding.”

She is not alone is suffering side-effects. Her friend who lives in Mollepata says that she too is “very much weakened” after tubal ligation. Disturbing facts have emerged from several communities including Mollepata, Limatambo and Ancahuasi. It was claimed that women visiting the dispensary for health checks for their children were locked in, sometimes in groups of 10 or 20. They were told they were to be vaccinated and then taken individually to the operating theatre and anaesthetised. They came out feeling groggy. Later they realised they had been sterilised.

(1) Founded in Lima in January 2000, the organisation was strengthened by its later amalgamation with the Network of Alternative Municipalities. It is supported by international technical cooperation agencies from France and the United Kingdom. See: Remurpe website

(2) See the study by Peruvian public health consultant Raquel Hurtado, Aplicación de la anticonceptión quirúrgica como política de población en el Perú y violaciones a los Derechos humanos, Lima 2000. See also the book written by Maria-Christine Zauzich published by the German Justice and Peace Commission, Munich, 2000.

(3) It is estimated that the Peruvian NGO Reprosalud Manuela Ramos received $25m from Usaid 1995-2000.

(4) The 1985 Law on Population Policy prohibited surgical sterilisation. A national population council was mandated to monitor compliance but will be replaced by Promudeh.

(5) At an international seminar in 1996 on the reform of the health sector, Fujimori’s opening speech was fully endorsed by both the WHO and the Pan American Health Organisation.

(6) The amendment is named after its main backer, Todd Tiarhrt, a Republican member of Congress from Kansas.